


I’m Not A Monster

by Ellionne



Series: Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (Ginny), Character Study, Gen, Mind Healer Tom, Minor Character Death, Outtake, Prequel, Tom Riddle-centric, Tom's Background, kind of thing?, patient harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellionne/pseuds/Ellionne
Summary: He cared just about himself. His access to magic.And that his name would never be forgotten.Which, ironically, it now was.
Series: Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022239
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	I’m Not A Monster

**Author's Note:**

> **Do NOT repost, recreate or translate.**
> 
> Thanks to my beta [Sage](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeuroWriter14/pseuds/NeuroWriter14) <3
> 
> This is an Outtake from [_Why So Serious?_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27236248/chapters/66533374), it was intended as the second Chapter and can be read as such.

Tom planned to take his time for the sessions with Harry. 

There was no need to rush because there just wasn’t any competition to boot him out of his new position. The Board of Bethlem’s was glad _someone_ was there to be exclusively in charge of Harry, Dumbledore wasn’t in any position to put a spoke in his wheel - for Tom was sure, Dumbledore would have recognized his face, even if it was fifty years younger than it should be - and there was no way, that he would share the fate of the poor incompetent souls before him. 

He might be out of his time, but he was, after all, Tom Marvolo Riddle. The man who became the greatest Dark Lord of remembered history. The man who invoked fear on a scale, his name wasn’t uttered in such a long time that it was lost to almost every living soul. Only referred to as _You-Know-Who_ , if at all. 

A fact, which honestly irked Tom. 

The reason which let him set out on his path originally was his desire to leave a mark on the world. His fear _\- worry_ about being forgotten. Like all those children in the orphanage who didn’t survive the time of war. Or illness. Or the care of the matron. Or any other thing, really. 

The research he had done about _him_ , brought forth information about how he charmed his way through the pureblood society. Of course, Tom remembered how he used to smear honey around the mouths of his peers in Hogwarts, but it had been a necessity, not a conviction. Tom cared neither about wizarding Britain nor pureblood society or any other group _he_ used to charm or to terrorize in the past. He wondered how _he_ had managed to lose himself to such an extent. After all, he cared just about himself. His access to magic. 

And that his name would never be forgotten. 

Which, ironically, it now was. 

Although considering his current situation, it was rather brilliant.  
After his rebirth and a quick initial research, he just went into Gringotts, to verify his name and reclaim _his_ vault. For a reasonable fee, Gringotts even sorted everything out with the ministry. No need to manipulate. No need to forge papers. 

And again, Tom was grateful that Dumbledore at this point was already deprived of any and all important contacts, or it would have been much more problematic.

At age seventeen, Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr. appeared alone after his family's prolonged stay overseas, sat his OWLs and NEWTs at the ministry with remarkable results, and breezed a week later through the testings and the paperwork for his official confirmed Mastery of Legilimency and Occlumency. 

His phenomenal achievements had brought him a nicely written article in the international professional journals and an internship with Britain’s most outstanding mind healer. While it usually took years to get the profession approved, Tom’s work ethic, his brilliance, and the sheer amount of knowledge in many fields led to his final exams just shy of a year later. 

At the age of eighteen, Tom was an officially approved mind healer and managed to talk his master into giving him a glowing recommendation, with which he applied for his job as Harry Potter's mind healer. The job for which he took it upon himself to become a mind healer in the first place. 

He had, of course, even as a _real_ sixteen-year-old, been brilliant and above his peers. But the reason, how he was able to manage his workload these last two years and getting his glowing achievements, was a simple miscalculation on his part.

A single assumption, which led to fifty years of solitary confinement. 

As it turned out, the soul shard resting in a Horcrux is, in fact, not asleep. It is _never_ asleep, to be precise. The only reason how he didn’t lose his mind while imprisoned in the diary, was that he was somehow able to let his magic seep into the proximity of it. 

Because of it, surrounding books had been copied into his Hogwarts library. And since he had finally had a single stroke of luck, _he_ had managed to store the diary in a library - the _Malfoy_ library. A library, big enough to busy his mind for fifty years. Oh, the things he had learned. 

He was just eventually becoming content in the awareness that he would live his assumed immortal, sleepless existence as a lorn scholar, as the unthinkable happened. 

His diary was removed from the library. And found by a human, _ingenious_ enough to write in an obviously magical book. Naive enough, not to wonder when said book answered. 

Tom was introduced to sweet Ginerva Molly Weasley. His soul - or rather his prey.  
The fuel needed, to strengthen his soul and his magic. To activate a ritual which he learned about in his confinement. A soul for a soul. A body for a body. 

With every word Ginerva wrote in his diary, every tear she shed over its pages, every thought she shared, a part of her soul was bound to the diary. And every word he wrote, let his soul take root in the outer world. Until someday, at the end of little Ginerva’s first year at Hogwarts, the balance between them toppled over and Tom was able to throw the last of Ginerva into his diary in the process to free himself. He was particularly proud of himself, for the adaptation of an old and mostly forgotten djinni ritual.

He owed Ginerva a lot. Or rather, she paid her debt to him for being her friend, honestly. The woes of a little girl, not even a teenager... It was hideous. 

All the whining about her poor family - she should have tried living as an orphan in muggle London while there was a world war going on.  
About being the youngest of seven - seven was the most magical number; she should have been proud over the fact and the possibilities magic could have granted her if she just had been capable enough.  
And of course, the disappearance of one Harry Potter. Hero of her childhood, future husband of her dreams... who should have been in Hogwarts with her, a year ahead and already waiting. Her mother had told her all about him, just to suddenly stop - but the fairy tales had already stuck in Ginerva’s empty head. 

Since Tom hadn’t been familiar with the name he overcame his aversion and asked her about it. She had relished in the feeling of being needed and, for once in her short life, the knowledgeable one and explained in great detail about Harry Potter and his phenomenal victory over the evil Dark Lord You-Know-Who (which he didn’t at that point, but he was able to guess). 

Her childish mind was no great source of reliable knowledge but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He curbed his desire to know more about the demise of _him_ and bide his time till he gained his eventual freedom.

His patience had paid out.  
After luring Ginerva into the Chamber of Secrets and fulfilling the ritual, after researching the actual state of the world and wizarding Britain, learning about Harry Potter's stay at Bethlem’s, _his_ obvious trip into madness, and his own name having been all but forgotten, Tom chose his own agenda. 

He didn’t need to become a Dark Overlord. He didn’t care for pureblood politics. He didn’t even want to be Minister of Magic or something similar prestigious. His years of solitary made him an even more aversive person than before.  
He still didn’t want his name to be forgotten though. But hadn’t he made friends with the thought of being a scholar before? He had widespread knowledge about nearly everything the rumoured Malfoy library had to offer. He was young in body but over fifty years without sleep in his studies. 

He would blow the academic world. He would carve his name in stone for eternity. Of course, he would also research immortality further. He was still not keen on dying. 

But first.  
He needed to learn more about _his_ downfall. 

About Harry Potter. 

What would be better than becoming his mind healer?

**Author's Note:**

> I have [tumblr](https://ellionne.tumblr.com/) now. Feel free to check it out and throw me a question or something. :D


End file.
